


At Play

by watcherofworlds



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Episode: s05e17 Kapiushon, Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-15
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:13:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23661367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/watcherofworlds/pseuds/watcherofworlds
Summary: "You see, until you confess your secret, Oliver, everyone you love is at play"ORFelicity is put in peril when Dig forces her to go home and get some rest after six days of searching for Oliver with no success. She just doesn't know it.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 12





	At Play

Felicity stared at the blinking red dot on the computer screen in front of her, labeled “Green Arrow” in small, blocky text. Chase must have figured out how to disable the GPS tracker embedded in Oliver’s suit, because that blinking red dot was still placing him at his last known location, where they knew he no longer was. Felicity stared at it until her eyes burned and her vision swam, hoping against all hope and reason- as she had several times over the last six days- that it would move.

“Felicity.” Dig’s voice startled her back into awareness with the same abruptness that an airhorn might have, some time later. It was difficult to tell how much time had passed, underground without the daylight to guide her, but she guessed that it had been at least an hour. As she gathered her wits back about her, Felicity realized that she didn’t have to turn and look to know where Dig was- she could sense his presence, strong and steady as a rock, at her back. In Oliver’s absence, he had taken up his habit of looming protectively behind her as she moved about the bunker. She wished he wouldn’t. She needed her focus to be on  _ finding _ Oliver, not on the constant reminders that he wasn’t here.

“What’s up?” Felicity asked, trying for lightness in her tone, turning her chair and covering her mouth with one hand to stifle a yawn as she did so.

“You fell asleep in front of your computers,” Dig replied, his voice and countenance solemn. There was a moment of silence, then he said, “Go home, Felicity.”

“I can’t,” Felicity said, shaking her head. “I have to find Oliver.” Her voice went hoarse, the terrible fear of losing Oliver forever robbing her of her breath.

“You’re no good to Oliver in this state,” Dig countered. “In the last six days, you’ve barely slept and you haven’t eaten. You haven’t even showered.” He had her there. All of those things required her stepping away from her computers, and she hadn’t been able to bear tearing herself away from them for more than a few minutes at a time. “Go home, Felicity. Have something to eat, take a shower, and get some rest. I promise I will call you if there’s any news.” Felicity studied Dig’s face for a long moment and knew that he wasn’t going to take no for an answer on this. If she didn’t do as he said, he’d probably try to remove her from the bunker by force.

“Alright,” she said with a sigh, getting to her feet, swaying for a moment as a wave of exhaustion threatened to overtake her. “You  _ promise _ you’ll call me if something happens?”

“I promise,” Dig assured her, his voice going soft with concern. “Now go.” Felicity nodded and headed for the elevator. The last sight she had of Dig before the doors slid closed on her was him turning to face the computer in front of him, taking up her position of watching the blinking red dot on the screen that  _ should  _ have told them where Oliver was.

Arriving at her loft a few minutes later, Felicity turned to face the openness of her living space after locking her door and had to close her eyes against a sudden rush of memories that time and circumstances had made painful. She had lived here with others far longer than she had alone, and in that moment the loft was suddenly filled with ghosts of the past. Especially since she had lost the people she had made the memories that were haunting her with. 

_ Not both of them _ , she reminded herself forcefully.  _ Not yet. I haven’t lost Oliver yet. _

Trying to distract herself from the dark thoughts now circling through her mind, Felicity moved away from the door and into the kitchen. She forced herself to eat some of the leftover Chinese food in her fridge, but it tasted like sawdust in her mouth and she gave up and put it back after just a few bites. She was now more sure than ever that if they didn’t find Oliver soon, the stress and worry of not knowing might kill her.

Having effectively given up on managing to eat anything, Felicity went upstairs to take a shower, the next step in this strange half hearted parody of her usual nightly routine. It took an hour, when it normally would have taken her half that amount of time, because she kept getting out every few minutes to check if Dig had called. Finally, she forced herself to accept that if it was going to happen, it would, and finished what she was doing and changed into her pajamas. Then she dragged herself down the hall into her bedroom, so exhausted that she barely remembered to take off her glasses and set them on her nightstand before getting into bed. Six days’ worth of stress and worry and too little sleep hit her all at once in that moment, and she was asleep the second her head hit the pillow.

Some time later, she jerked awake from nightmares about Oliver being tortured and killed, her gaze roving frantically around her bedroom. In the dim light filtering in her window from the buildings outside, she could see that the room was empty and she was alone, but she could have sworn that she’d sensed someone looming over her.

Sitting up in bed, Felicity reached for her glasses, frowning in bewilderment when her fingers met empty air, brushing against the top of her nightstand and nothing else. She could have sworn she’d set them within arm’s reach, so she could grab them quickly when she woke. Shaking her head, she reached for them again, fumbling around for a bit before she finally managed to find them and put them on. That done, she got out of bed and switched on her bedroom light, readying herself to go about her usual routine.

As she did so, despite the fact that it was the wrong time of day for it, Felicity found herself shivering, though not from cold. She could swear that she felt a malevolent presence lingering in the room, the very same one she felt any and every time that Adrian Chase was discussed. Giving her head an angry shake, she shoved aside the lingering notion that something was off, the inescapable feeling that someone had been in her loft who did not belong there. Right now, she had more important things to worry about, namely the fact that she needed to get back to the bunker as quickly as possible, because the fact that Dig hadn’t called meant that they still needed to find Oliver, and they needed to do it before the nightmares she’d had came true.


End file.
